Malda, March 12: The officer-in-charge of Ratua police station has been accused of keeping a primary schoolteacher in the lock-up for three nights on the charge of stealing his own motorcycle and then producing him in court.

The court granted bail to the teacher, Sabir Ali Biswas, and his friend, Barek Ali, who had been locked up with him. Biswas’s family has lodged a written complaint against the officer-in-charge, Ashim Gope, with the state human rights commission.

Biswas, who teaches in a primary school in Mosimpur village, had gone to Ratua on Sunday on his motorcycle with Ali riding pillion. Ali’s in-laws live in Ratua.

The two friends had stopped at a roadside teashop in the afternoon, from where the two-wheeler was stolen.

Biswas and Ali together went to the Ratua police station to lodge a complaint about the theft. But instead of taking down their complaint, officer-in-charge Gope reportedly sent them to the lock-up. Then he used their mobile phones to call their family members, claimed the duo.

When Biswas’s brother Ashim reported to the Ratua police station the next day, he was allegedly asked to cough up Rs 30,000 to get them released.

“I was not only surprised but I panicked. I did not know what to do and finally met the district superintendent of police yesterday and lodged a written complaint against the OC (officer-in-charge). I also mentioned the Rs 30,000 bribe that Gope had asked for to release my brother and Ali. The police chief assured me that he would look into the matter,” Ashim said.

However, before the district police chief, Satyajit Banerjee, could intervene, the Ratua police forwarded Biswas and Ali to the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Malda, Bibhuti Narayan Sinha, this morning. They were accused of stealing a motorcycle.

The court, however, granted them bail.

Gope today refused to comment when told about the charges against him.

“The SP (superintendent of police) will reply to your queries,” the officer-in-charge said.

A visibly embarrassed district police chief said: “I have received the complaint and an inquiry has been started. Such a thing should not have happened.”

“Locking up someone for three nights without any specific charges is a serious offence. If found guilty, disciplinary action will be initiated against the officer-in-charge,” Banerjee added.